A fair number of real classics there!
Comments on my chess book collection
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bobby fischer teaches chess is a terrible book. The rest look very good.
You could probably work through Fischers in a couple of hours in the library.
paulgottlieb wrote:
"Winning Chess" by Chernev is a really good tactics primer. If you completely master all the examples in that book, you will be dangerous!
Will have to take a look at that.
More useful than 'Sharpen Your Tactics' by Lein/Archangelsky?
"Bobby FIscher Teaches Chess" - a basic tactics book nothing special but not bad either
"Pawn Power in Chess" - Kmoch (McKay edition)
good book but you will get smiles from players if you use the language in the book. There are books equally or better out there now but you cantn go wrong if you can stick with it.
"Basic Chess Endings" - Fine (McKay edition)
reference book and dry! dont try to go fromcover to cover skip around,.. use in conjunction to round out examples with silmans endgame book should work great.
"An Invitation to Chess" - Chernev and Harkness - (1945 edition)
meh its ok... nothing special
"Winning Chess - How to See Three Moves Ahead" - Chernev (1948 edition) a few players have mentioned this as a good book ill have to check it ... I like Chernev as a teacher so cannt be bad
"Logical Chess - Move by Move" - Chernev (1957 edition)
Tal said he read this before his match against Botvinnik. A great book for U1800 for sure and great teaching material.
"Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" - Chernev
the next step after the above book
"Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" - Chernev
great book! it teaches middlegame to transitions as well as practical endgame lessons
"My Best Games of Chess 1908 - 1937" - Alekhine
A great book! one you can read for the rest of your life
"My 60 Memorable Games" - Fischer (2008 Batsford edition)
not sure about the ghost writing part since it was printed before fischer was World champion and fischer didnt like ANYONE to take credit for his stuff. Its a great book and deeper than you might get on the first glance.
"Silman's Complete Endgame Course" - Silman
great book to keep endgame study under control
"The Amateur's Mind" - Silman\
a thought process book that answers a lot of questions about why?
look at Gulko's recent book for a more advanced version of this.
"Chess - Tactics and Strategy" - Burgess
its ok not bad but not exceptional
"Mammoth Book of the World's Best Chess Games" - Burgess, Nunn, and Emms
great stuff! if you can get through the whole book you will have a great knowledge of ches shistory and also some darn fun games. the analysis is nice and often original not just cut and paste from old stuff.
nimzovich wrote:
TonyH wrote:
"Pawn Power in Chess" - Kmoch (McKay edition)
good book but you will get smiles from players if you use the language in the book. There are books equally or better out there now but you cantn go wrong if you can stick with it"
"Logical Chess - Move by Move" - Chernev (1957 edition)
Tal said he read this before his match against Botvinnik. A great book for U1800 for sure and great teaching material.
"My 60 Memorable Games" - Fischer (2008 Batsford edition)
not sure about the ghost writing part since it was printed before fischer was World champion and fischer didnt like ANYONE to take credit for his stuff. Its a great book and deeper than you might get on the first glance.
Very thoughtful add-on comments, TonyH!
I would extend further:
1) instead of "Pawn Power", obtain GM Soltis' "Pawn Structure Chess"; not sure if it is in print anymore, but worth the effort finding.
2) I have never seen that comment by Tal! Can you please cite the source?
3) I am most likely wrong regarding the ghost writing suspicion, but I am not alone. www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/memorable_ghost_Uh4Lytp5tI2691UO5kID6I?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME= ;)
I don't feel too bad about "Pawn Power in Chess" and "Basic Chess Endings" being rather dry and dull. If memory serves, I think I paid about $1.30 for "Pawn Power in Chess" and $1.75 for "Basic Chess Endings". I keep them as more or less relics of chess literature, not to really use.
Jul 1, 2012
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#8
Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis is great and I hear being reprinted. I knew virtually nothing about good pawn play as a Class C player until I read this book many years ago.
NajdorfDefense wrote:
Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis is great and I hear being reprinted. I knew virtually nothing about good pawn play as a Class C player until I read this book many years ago.
There's also Winning Chess Middlegames: An Essential Guide to Pawn Structures by Ivan Sokolov. Any view on this one and how it compares to Soltis? I have been thinking of buying it but am discouraged by the high price and would need to be convinced by a good positive review.
Thanks for that, Streetfighter. Beyond my level then (as well as my pocket) - though sometimes I enjoy more advanced reading for the ideas and prose style.
Did I hear you are working on a new book yourself?
A very nice collection. Yes one could always find some better books but
your collection is great! Next question--what books to add?
TonyH wrote:
(Edited to safe space.)
Wow, great comments, Tony. I wish someone would take the time to make comments on my chess book collection like this!
Jul 2, 2012
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#13
MrEdCollins wrote:
TonyH wrote:
(Edited to safe space.)
Wow, great comments, Tony. I wish someone would take the time to make comments on my chess book collection like this!
Mmmm if I remember correctly I think you once posted a pic of your books so I think TonyH would take up 2 forum pages ;)
Bronco70 wrote:
Mmmm if I remember correctly I think you once posted a pic of your books so I think TonyH would take up 2 forum pages ;)
You have an excellent memory. Yes, I have 430+ chess books. It would take someone far too many hours to review them all.
http://www.edcollins.com/chess/chess-books.htm
"Logical Chess - Move by Move" - Chernev (1957 edition)
>>>likes this! I have the 2003 edition.
Shadowknight911 wrote:
FWIW all members of our elementary school chess team are/were given a copy of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess as their first chess book to learn from. I never really opened the book as my dad had dozens of chess books already. I hear mostly positive comments though about the book.
Incredibly basic. It's basically a back rank mate book, with a lot on learning how the pieces move and what a pin is.
A starter collection I see. I am a book addiact so I have about 50 to 100 chess books but some of my peers have over 1000.
You need silman reassess your chess and silmans end game course now.
Tal's comment about Chernev was somwhere in his My Life and games book.
You have me beat EdCollins I have about 350 or so but not sure I might have to recount sometime. I focus a lot on classical stuff, books of games and some stuff for teaching kids. so a lot of starting out etc.
I really hope they reprint the Solits pawn structure chess book. I looked it up on Amazon and its crazy expensive! its still great though. worthy of a new publication for sure and worth the 20-25 it will probably cost.
Read few pages of Pawn Structure some years ago. Detailed and difficult read. Like this one also. Difficult read too.
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streetfighter wrote:
cferrel wrote:
A starter collection I see. I am a book addiact so I have about 50 to 100 chess books but some of my peers have over 1000.
You need silman reassess your chess and silmans end game course now.
You need Streetfighting Chess - you all do, no collection is complete without a copy
Any chance on you going digital? You stick that bad boy on kindle and I'll be the first in line.
Here is my small, but good collection of chess books. Some were purchased new, but most I got at used book stores. I am always on the look out for the classics. Please comment.
"Bobby FIscher Teaches Chess"
"Pawn Power in Chess" - Kmoch (McKay edition)
"Basic Chess Endings" - Fine (McKay edition)
"An Invitation to Chess" - Chernev and Harkness - (1945 edition)
"Winning Chess - How to See Three Moves Ahead" - Chernev (1948 edition)
"Logical Chess - Move by Move" - Chernev (1957 edition)
"Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" - Chernev
"Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" - Chernev
"My Best Games of Chess 1908 - 1937" - Alekhine
"My 60 Memorable Games" - Fischer (2008 Batsford edition)
"Silman's Complete Endgame Course" - Silman
"The Amateur's Mind" - Silman
"Chess - Tactics and Strategy" - Burgess
"Mammoth Book of the World's Best Chess Games" - Burgess, Nunn, and Emms